Member-only story
You’ll Do What I Tell You
No more. No Less.
Not a soul in Birdtown was surprised that she’d pull something like this. Only Daisy Lee-Landers would casually ask her twin, her only sister and only sibling, to take her place in the National Service Commitment. It would have been difficult to see Daisy in that drab uniform or in a dormitory bunk although a number of the kids in her graduating class looked forward to seeing just that. The disappointment and scorn reverberated throughout Birdtown.
The National Service Commitment was all that remained of the vast bureaucratic military apparatus assembled to fight the war on terror. With the oil gone and the current administration’s iron grip on enormous stores of water secure there was little point in flailing away in distant deserts. It was discovered, though, that sending eighteen year olds away for two years of public service was a great idea. The streets and highways got cleaned, snow was removed, signage was replaced, affordable housing built, existing housing stock repaired and trees, millions and millions of trees, got planted. An unforeseen side benefit was that responsible, level-headed, focused young people came back in place of the gossipy, overly dramatic whiners who kicked and screamed all the way to the camps.
“Here, use my ID.” Daisy felt she had all but closed the deal with Dannie.
